The present invention relates to a communication agent apparatus which intermediates communication on the basis of presence information indicating the current situation of a called user.
A conventional communication system disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-169137 (reference 1) comprises a service control station which has a communication function (call forwarding service to an agent communication device, a telephone answering service, or the like) designated by a called user in correspondence with presence information indicating the current situation of the called user, a communication device which allows a calling user to select a desired communication method of communication methods corresponding to the presence information, a communication control station which generates a command which can execute the selected communication method, and an information transfer apparatus which executes the selected communication method for communication between the calling communication device and the called communication device in accordance with the generated command.
The above communication system can provide a facility for a called user by serving as an agent for communication made to the called user on the basis of presence information indicating the current situation of the called user. However, the handling methods which a conventional apparatus of this type can take are mainly limited to the distribution of communication such as call forwarding service to an agent communication device and telephone answering service. For this reason, this system does not effectively function in a situation in which, for example, a called user wants to answer by himself/herself but cannot answer because he/she is present in a place distant from the communication device.